The Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan Sherali Kabir has expressed concern about the slow pace of development of light industry in the country.
In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Sherali Kabir noted on February 16 that in Kyrgyzstan, whose potential is lower than that of Tajikistan, 158,000 people are employed in the light industry.
“Meanwhile, we have this figure several times lower. We need to work in this direction, especially in the field of processing cotton and silk,” Kabir said.
According to him, Tajikistan’s exports last year amounted to 1.406.9 billion U.S. dollars.
The industrial sector reportedly accounted for nearly 89 percent (1.215.4 billion U.S. dollars) of the country’s exports reported in 2020.
“During the last year, Tajikistan exported 87,000 tons of primary aluminum, 191,400 tons of ores, 1.313 million tons of cement, and 100,100 tons of cotton fiber,” the minister said
Kabir noted that Tajikistan has great potential for the production and export of cement. “Last year, Tajikistan produced 5.6 million tons of cement. Of this amount, 1.3 million tons of cement were exported to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan”, the minister said.
Compared to 2019 the index of the volume of production of industrial goods in Tajikistan reportedly amounted to 109.7 percent.
“To-date, 2,274 industrial enterprises have been registered in Tajikistan; of them, 110 enterprises were not in operation last year for various reasons,” said the minister. “300 new industrial enterprises were launched into operation last year and they created a total of 6,500 new jobs.”
